In addition to a poem ‘Range-finding’ by Robert Frost ,which places nature (in particular a spider) in the foreground, even on the battlefield, I found other poems by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Rudy Francisco featuring the spider. The Whitman and the Dickinson poems celebrate the beauty and ingenuity of the spider’s web, whilst the Francisco is contemporary, and asks us to be compassionate towards them when they come into our homes.
I use excerpts from the poems, which provide the text for my choral piece and allow me to create 3 sections for a choral piece showing 3 different musical moods. The first busy and expansive, the second slower and more reflective, the 3rd lyrical and appealing to our better natures. The final section also recapitulates the opening idea now more fully scored and in the brighter key of E (up one semitone from the opening) which continues the web idea to a conclusion and appropriately envelopes the piece.
The style of the piece has elements of American composers such as John Adams and harmonically at times Stephen Sondheim. I’m realising as a choral composer that the text suggests a style of writing so pieces can be very different.
Although perhaps not technically the most challenging piece, it is precise dynamically and with a lot of articulation detail. In particular the differing grouping of 8 quavers suggested by the movement of the creature.